Some information on this website may be out-of-date following the death of Queen Elizabeth.

The Court Circular

The daily Court Circular is the official listing of the previous day’s Royal events and is printed in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Scotsman as well as online. The practice of the Royal Household or 'Court' circulating a report of the Sovereign's official daily engagements to the newspapers was reportedly begun by King George III in 1803, after he became frustrated at the inaccurate reporting of Royal events by the national press. Today it remains the definitive account of official Royal events

The Court Circular began with King George III's appointment of a 'Court Newsman' whose job consisted solely of supplying the daily newspapers with accurate information on Royal movements. 

It seems likely that the description of the previous day's Court activities was not originally known by this name and did not appear in the same format that it does today.

In 1819, 1821 and 1823, items of news in The Times were quoted as 'from the Court Circular', and this became a daily heading from 1827.

How the Court Circular is written today

Today, the Court Circular reports the previous day's Royal engagements in selected British newspapers and on this website.

It is written by an Information Officer based in the Private Secretary’s Office at Buckingham Palace.

King George III created the role of a 'Court Newsman', whose job consisted solely of supplying the daily newspapers with accurate information on Royal movements

A copy of the Court Circular as reported in The Times is retained by Buckingham Palace in a special book which is then passed to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.

Quotation: ‘King George III created the role of a 'Court Newsman', whose job consisted solely of supplying the daily newspapers with accurate information on Royal movements’